How New Year table in Russia changed over the centuries

Our great-great-grandmothers adored a flour-based dish called ‘kulaga’. This dish was made from rye flour, malt and viburnum berries. The malt was diluted with boiling water and, after steeping for an hour, double the amount of rye flour was added. Then, after kneading the dough, it was cooled to 25–28°C and fermented with a crust of rye bread. Once fermented, the dough was put in a sealed container and placed in a heated stove for 8–10 hours. ‘Kulaga’, with its pleasant sweet-and-sour flavor, was believed to help with colds and the nervous system, as well as with heart, kidney, gallstone and liver ailments.

‘Kulaga dough’ was also popular. For this dish, similar to jam, two cups of ground rye breadcrumbs were mixed with 1 cup of sugar syrup and spices, such as cinnamon, cloves, star anise and cardamom, were added.

During the medieval ages, the era of princes Yaroslav the Wise and Vladimir Monomakh, the most popular dish was sterlet fish, heartily stuffed with mushrooms. After scalding and all the insides and backbone were removed from the fish, its body was rubbed with lemon and pepper and then smeared with mashed berries. The belly was then stuffed with porcini mushrooms and fried onions and sewn up with animal sinews. The sterlet was then steamed and poached in a special white sauce made from fish broth, cream, sour cream, brine and fresh herbs.

In the early 18th century, during the reign of Peter the Great, who actually decreed the celebration of the New Year from December 31 to January 1, New Year's Eve was called “generous”. On this day, not only a “great table” was set for the nobility, but also a rich tablespread with dishes for the common people. Dishes and vats of wine and beer were placed near specially built triumphal arches. The main dishes of the New Year's table in the imperial palace were suckling pigs with buckwheat porridge and geese baked with sauerkraut or apples. At family feasts, cold appetizers included ham and pork roast studded with garlic. For the hot course, green ‘shchi’ (cabbage soup), crayfish soup with pies and layered pâté were typically served. Delicacies also included cleaned crayfish tails, salted quails, stuffed ducks and freshly salted sturgeon.

In the first half of the 19th century, the traditions of the kitchen feast were much simpler. Even in the homes of noble people, mostly simple appetizers were served, such as salted mushrooms, cucumbers or radish salads. Though there were also delicacies like fried pullets, veal fricassee and boiled trout in wine. The fruit bowl was traditionally filled with oranges, pears and bunches of grapes, which were grown in the greenhouses of Moscow and St. Petersburg even in winter.

By the second half of the 19th century, gourmets came to enjoy smelt, caviar, salmon and cheeses, which became excellent appetizers with the newly fashionable cognacs and European wines.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, chilled drinks and ice cream were held in special esteem. Coffee and chocolate also began to be imported to Russia and it became incredibly fashionable to invite guests “for a cup of coffee” instead of the usual tea party.

On the eve of the 20th century, sardines, lobsters, anchovies, hazel grouse and turkeys appeared on the New Year's feast menu.

The Soviet New Year's table was not refined and was considered “rich” if sliced sausage adorned the plates. The traditional holiday dish became boiled potatoes paired with herring sprinkled with spring onion. In the 1950s, ‘kholodets’ (aspic), herring under a fur coat and Baltic sprats appeared on tables. The second wave of popularity for the ‘Olivier’ (‘Russian’) salad began, with ‘doctor's sausage’ instead of crab meat and hazel grouse.

The article was originally published (in Russian) on the Culture.ru website.